Tracking snow geese
by Hollis Peverell
Summary: Eden Potter is born at the end of July and is presumed the chosen one of the prophecy but in this world, Lily Potter has more to rely on than just the Fidelius charm. Eden Lilianne Octavia Estelle Black is raised in the wizarding world by her godfather Regulus Black. Slytherin!Lily Slytherin!Harry Fem!Harry Black!Harry Regulus Black lives! Wizarding culture/religion rewriting
1. Slightly Off Course

Chapter 1- Slightly Off Course

It was the 13th of the 7th at precisely 12.15 am,

Lily potter smiled exhausted having given birth just 15 minutes ago. She had given birth at the witching hour. Her child was a miracle child. Born on the first minute of the new day. James had long since run away with Remus and Sirius.

The healer that had helped her give birth rushed into the room. She looked completely flustered, her precious miracle baby in the healer's arms. The nurse was babbling something awful. Lily hated babbling or at least incompetent babbling. It was a trait that she had developed while in Slytherin.

Most people forgot she had been the mudblood in Slytherin. They preferred to think she had been a golden Gryffindor, what with the side of the war she was on. People tended to turn a blind eye when she fought in battle, when the curses she used were so clearly dark. Yes, it was because she had been in Slytherin, but people knew more dark curses in Slytherin because they tended to need to defend themselves from the other houses. Mostly Gryffindors but not just Gryffindors.

Back to babbling, in Slytherin babbling was hated. It was seen as Hufflepuffely, sure you might babble with a trusted friend but everywhere else you upheld a mask of cool perfection. Yes, Severus had a habit of babbling when he was nervous along with little, not so little anymore, Regulus Black who got ruffled very easily and then there was Bellatrix who admittedly had been nice enough to her, but her relationship with Bellatrix had always been... complicated.

Bellatrix was and always would be very Bellatrixy. Yes, she was fun to be around, if not a little nuts but she had a more sadistic side that Lily had happened upon occasionally. She too tended to babble insanely.

She had almost giggled when Regulus had first told her about his relationship with Ravenclaw Barty Crouch jr, he had been so worried that as a muggleborn Lily would discriminate against him that he could barely string two words together.

This healer though, this healer was definitely Hufflepuff babbling. She glared at the healer whose name she hadn't bothered remembering, and snatched her baby daughter away from the incompetent woman before the healer dropped her child.

"I-It's a g-girl" the healer stuttered out.

Lily rolled her eyes like she hadn't known that.

"Spit it out what's wrong", Lily near growled out.

The healer paled a shade or two.

Lily felt like hitting the woman, she may have been Slytherin but it was a close thing with Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. She would be the first to admit she was impulsive, occasionally acting on intuition, rather than solid information.

The healer was trying to avoid her eyes. She scowled then coughed pointedly raising an eyebrow at the healer as if to say 'go-ahead'. The healer met her eyes for the first time since coming in. Lily got the urge to just Legilimens her and be done with it she restrained herself, barely.

" Yo-ur daugh-daughter d-does not ap-p-pear t-to h-ave in-inherit-ted th-the P-Potter f-fam-family ma-magic-s" the healer pushed out in a single breath stuttering something awful.

Lily sighed that was a problem, a rather large problem. It would make her daughter a bigger target to pureblood bigotry. There would be comments like 'the only reason you didn't inherit the potter magic was because of your mother' and 'filthy half-blood no proper magics practically a mudblood' thrown.

The healer looked like she expected to be hit, mind she probably had been hit before delivering such news.

"Which family magic did my daughter inherit" Lily prompted.

She knew the baby had to have inherited at least some family magic as James was a pureblood. Only wixen with no magical bloodline would not inherit family magic. The healer shuddered visibly.

"B-B-Bla-Bla-ck" she stuttered out quietly.

"I'm sorry what," Lily asked she could barely hear the woman she was speaking so quietly

"Your daughter has inherited the Black family magics," the healer said loudly as though summoning all remnants of courage.

Lily frowned that could be a problem. She knew enough about Black family magic to know that it was very powerful, very volatile, and completely uncontrollable until one was of age and fully trained in its use. Regulus and Bellatrix had trouble with bursts of magic when they were at Hogwarts and well before that as well. Narcissa and Andromeda had suffered similarly but to a lesser degree. She didn't know much about Sirius but she presumed it was the same for him, maybe, she was unsure if Sirius had inherited the Black magic or not. She had never asked.

According to Regulus, Black family magic started building at age three and only other Blacks had ways to control it, presumably, they used Black magic to do so. She hadn't spoken to any blacks for about three quarters of a year, exempting Sirius. She should probably rectify that problem, although, with the war going on, She shook her head distractedly, even so, her daughter's magic alignment should almost definitely remain secret.

It would create a massive scandal were it to get out. The headlines would all be either 'Potters join the dark side?' because most of the blacks were either aligned with the dark or still neutral or possibly 'Scandal: The Lady Potter's Black affair' because with her daughters magic alignment and her already very Black looks it wouldn't be hard for that conclusion to form and while she could deal with something like that, she didn't want James to have to deal with that. ]

She did the only thing she could think of in a minute. She grabbed her wand clutching her baby in her opposing arm. "Obliviate" she spoke clearly and dived through memories of the last 45 minutes or so. Bypassing the shoddy mental shields the woman had tried to instal and destroying all memories of the conversation, not just blocked like a usual obliviator would do, but demolished completely.

The difference was that blocked memories could be recovered. Barty had taught her that little trick when she'd found out he was dating Regulus. She knew she was being unfair to the healer but when it came to her family she was taking no chances. With all traces of her gone, she spun disapperating from the building.

* * *

posted- 9/03/2020

*In this story Lily was a Slytherin so James wasn't really attracted to her, which led to not nearly as much bullying focused on Severus. They still bullied people just not to the same degree. Lily and James didn't get together until a coincidental meeting after Hogwarts. Severus never called Lily a mudblood because he was never that agitated by the marauders, so Lily remained on good terms with the Slytherins.

*In this universe 3, 7, and 13 are powerful numbers in arithmancy, so the fact that her child was born on the witching hour of this day makes her child magical and rare.

*I'm trying to show that changing a few details can change everything.

*Yes Lily had a relationship with Bellatrix black. Lily is bi.

*When Regulus came out to Lily he was unaware of Lily's relationship with Bella.

*If Lily seems a little OoC, its because she spent 7 years in Slytherin with Slytherins.

*Lily is just a little pissed its because she's just given birth in the middle of a war and the healer really is very annoying.

*Wixen- a gender-neutral term for magical peoples.

*Yes Lily is aware that what she is doing is wrong but she isn't taking any chances with her family.


	2. The Godparent Dilemma

Chapter 2- The godparent dilemma

Lily apparated into Potter manors living room thinking quickly. She would be able to raise her child until she was about 2 and a half, then one of the Blacks she had known would have to take or at least help raise her baby girl depending on how strong her baby's magic was.

She looked down at the newborn child in her arms. She and James would have to organise a naming ceremony. She had gotten James to agree with a more traditional wizarding name. James wasn't pleased, but he wasn't angry anymore either. She would give their child a name, James would give their child a name, and the godparent or godparents would also give her baby a name.

She could make one of the Blacks godparent, the thought struck her. James wouldn't object he never objected when it came to her. It was as if he was worried she'd run away. She thought through her options.

Bellatrix was almost instantly out of the question. She wasn't fit to be any sort of godparent as she was too busy taping together her own life after she had eloped with Rabastan Lestrange instead of marrying Rudolphus. She had left a heap of chaos in her wake. Lily supposed it was especially scandalous because the Lestrange's were near-identical. Rita Skeeter, a Ravenclaw in her year was having a field day. The only reason Bella hadn't been disowned was that she had still married a respectable pure-blood, which brought her to Andromeda.

Andie was probably the best option if she was just picking a regular godparent, but she had been disowned from the Black family and having Andie as godmother would cause the other blacks to look down on her daughter. Andie had also been disowned before she could finish learning how to wield Black magic correctly and so she didn't know everything needed to teach her daughter to use the magic to her fullest potential, then there was Sirius.

The problem with Sirius was that she wasn't even sure Sirius had inherited Black magic. If he hadn't the animosity between him and his family would make more sense, so he was out, for now, then there was Narcissa and Regulus both were good options but both had their downsides.

Regulus had long since been coerced into getting the dark mark but would undoubtedly care for any child coming his way. James didn't actually know about Reggie's dark mark he just suspected it. Lily didn't have much against it, as she agreed with some of the dark lord's ideals anyway.

Narcissa's problem was that she was married to the pretentious and bratty Lucius Malfoy, always speaking about how his father had seer abilities and would 'know' things. Narcissa insisted she genuinely loved the git and Lily didn't believe Malfoy was smart enough to brew a proper love potion. Under all the arrogance she knew that Lucius would love the opportunity to give his wife another child as he was unable.

Perhaps she could give both a role as a godparent. They would both get to give the child a name and have a say in her life. The idea also gave backups in case anything happened to one of them. Powers her child was going to have a long extravagant name.

Noisey footsteps stumbled down the hallway outside the room and James appeared in the door frame speaking gibberish or pig Latin or something. She carefully unwound the sounds that James was making, something about how she had gone missing from Sir Octavian Malfoire hospital, he stopped when he saw her, Sirius running into him from behind.

"Oh thank Merlin you're alive" Lily rolled her eyes at James worry,

"don't believe everything you hear, no matter, come we have things to discuss and don't bring your dogs" she added the comment directed at Sirius and Remus who had just rushed into the room.

Seeing James wasn't moving, still out of breath from his earlier panic. She took his hand and dragged him upstairs to her office, still carrying her baby in one arm, and sat behind the desk.

She had found that it made James feel like he was being told off by a very strict teacher. It gave her the position of power.

"So…" James started awkwardly,

"so," Lily said, "we need to discuss some itsy bitsy details".

She had always made sure James never forgot she was Slytherin. She loved him but that didn't mean she couldn't or wouldn't hurt him. She had made sure he knew how to counter some of her more Slytherin plays for fear that otherwise, she would ruin their relationship.

"What details?" James asked somewhat cautiously,

"the godparents of our daughter," Lily replied calmly,

"well that's easy," said James he rolled his eyes, amateur, "we'll just have Sirius as the godfather and Alice Fawley no Longbottom as godmother,"

"I'm afraid it isn't going to be that simple".

James looked confused before his face twisted into one of slight understanding,

"Is this why you ran away from Malfoire's,"

"yes, James," Lily sighed tiredly before launching into an explanation, "it seems as though our child has inherited Black family magic rather than the Potter's magic,"

James' mouth fell open. James may not know things sometimes but most people knew about Black magic.

"What are we supposed to do Sirius never inherited Black family magic," Lily almost grinned, she had been right,

"Here's what we're going to do. We will raise our daughter till the age of three, by then her magic will be growing in spades. After that, a Black with full training in family magic will either teach her or raise her as their own, depending on how powerful she is," she waited patiently for James to respond.

The whole situation was mildly comical. Lily wondered if she was losing it, everything felt kind of numb or blocked off, no wait, that was just her occlumency shields. Oh well, she could break down later right now she needed to be calm, for James.

"I was thinking," she said tentatively, "we could ask Narcissa Malfoy to be godmother and Regulus Black, godfather they both inherited Black magic and they are good people just in bad situations,"

"Yes, yes," James muttered angrily, "why don't we just go give her to Bellatrix Lestrange and be done with it slimy slyth…"

"James," she growled out, James went quiet, "Bella is in no position to raise a child at the moment. It would be unfair to place the burden of a goddaughter on her shoulders",

"yes she'd likely drop it," growled James, "or maybe she'd just go and throw it," Lily glared,

"Narcissa and Regulus will be perfect godparents for our little girl. I am not asking or suggesting anymore James, I'm telling you. I will be asking them to be godparents, whether you like it, or not," James sighed,

"fine but I suggest we keep our choices of godparent secret. Their afflictions with the dark," Lily rolled her eyes, "could cause chaos and suspicion in The Order ranks".

Lily smiled at him conceding she had gotten her choice of godparents he had gotten something in return,

"that's fine," she said, "but please remember James, Narcissa isn't a death eater and Regulus was coerced into the position he's in, by his mother,"

she hadn't outright stated he was a death eater, just implied it. It couldn't be used as memory evidence. James nodded acceptingly,

"Well, I suppose you'd better ask them".

* * *

posted- 13/03/2020

*In this fic Lily encouraged Bellatrix to break free of her parents grasps so now we have Bella and Rabastan

*Sirius never inherited Black magic this is one of the reasons for the family animosity

*Lily doesn't have much of an opinion on the dark lord as she agrees with some of his aims

*Lucius Malfoy's father is not a seer this is a reference to the line "my father will hear about this" changed to "my father will know about this"

*I figured that there would be more than one hospital in the wizarding world St. Mungo's is a public hospital whereas Malfoire's is a private hospital

*The sir at the start of Sir Octavian Malfoire's hospital is like sir as in knight rather than a mark of respect

*The Marauders aren't nearly as close to Lily in this fanfic, as Lily was in Slytherin they only just started to get to know each other

*James was never as defiant to teachers as he didn't have hormones to back up arrogance


End file.
